The Other Freelancers
by SpiritInChains
Summary: The other people that work aboard the Mother of Invention have some difficult lives.
1. Chapter 1

"ODST's get ready to drop!" A voice yelled over the speakers aboard the UNSC Frigate _Soul's of the Damned_ we were dropping into the Human Colony on Kimba Prime. The Covenant fleet was there and they planed to glass the planet. I hopped into my Drop Pod and waited until the green light flashed telling the ODST's that they could initiate the drop sequence, we wouldn't want to leave anyone behind not in this situation. We waited for what seems like an hour until finally the green light went I slammed my hand down onto the launch button.

As the pod went towards the surface I had a minute to myself I looked towars the planet we were dropping on and I saw something not on the surface but near me in space that really frightened me. A new Human frigate named the _Mother of Invention_ jumped into the atmosphere of the planet. I heard chatter over the coms and It sounded like we didn't called for help, and It didn't calm my nerves to know that It was here and dropping pelicans towards the planet. I looked away to notice that we had broken the atmosphere and we headed towards the surface. 500 feet, 400 feet, 300 feet, 200 feet, 100 feet, and Touchdown.

I exited my pod to look for a commanding officer and I found several troops go towards a single man in Black and Red ODST armor. I grabbed my Assault Rifle and my Magnum and walked towards him. The lower ranking officers stood around In front of him as he was making a speech. When he was finished he yelled our motto: _Feet first into Hell!_ There were several people that rose their guns in the air others took this time to pray to whatever god they believed in as for me I looked towards the sky and saw the _Mother of Invention's_ pelicans begin to land in the city, _Well,_ I thought, _Time to go to work._


	2. Chapter 2

As we headed for the human colony we noticed minimal ammounts of Covenant activity but once we reached it there was a lot of dead Covenant and Humans. Upon closer examination the Covenant we either killed by Human weapons or by melee weapons, There was still a machete through one of them. Hold up a Machete? Really? I looked at the machete and It looked salvagable I grabbed it and put it through a strap on my thigh until I found a better spot for it at least.

The damage caused by these aliens was unreal. Full skyscrapers had holes through them with plasma burns. One building was broken in half and tilted dangerously to one side. Sadly we were headed towards that as that was a office building next to the building where the civilians are to be located in case of an event like this. As we walked forward there was a voice over the coms, "Hello?" a feminine voice said. I looked towards the Commanding officer and gave him the frequency that the voice was on. The Commander responded,"Are you okay Ms.?"

"Not really we are in the building that we are supposed to be in but there are some pelicans and Spartans it looks like." The lady continued.

"Spartans?" one of the ODST's asked.

"Ms. there aren't supposed to be any spartans here." the commander continued.

"Well there is hold on." She said as there was a scuffle and there was a new woman's voice on the coms.

"Hello." the voice said.

"Hello who is this?" the commander asked.

"Agent Carolina of Project Freelancer I assume this is the commanding ODST officer?" Carolina asked.

"Yes, are you the spartans that the lady mentioned." the commander questioned as we walked into the lobby of the building that the spartans were in.

"Yes, it is commander mind coming from behind and giving us a hand on Level 51?" Carolina continued.

"Yes, of course." the commander said as I pressed the button to the elevator and the doors opened there were two elevators, about 50 of us. I turned towards the commander as he hopped in with 9 sergeants yelling "All sergeants in the elevators, Corporal walk the rookies in through the stairs. I turned to the Commander and Saluted and called after him saying, "Good Luck sir."


	3. Chapter 3

I led the rookies up the staircase and as we reached the 50th floor we saw early signs of battle as there were bullet holes, dead bodies, and plasma burns. I heard a couple guys puke and tried to keep my lunch down. The floor started to vibrate it gradually got worse until I saw what was causing it,"Banshee, get clear, GO GO GO!" I yelled as I jumped out of the way of the banshee as It flew through the 50th floor and out the other side. I turned back and saw 5 dead troops. I looked around for everyone else and saw some people sprawled everywhere,"Alright everybody up to the 51st floor!"

When we reached the 51st floor we saw plenty of Humans and Covenant, we rallied and ran towards the covenant. I drew the machete and hacked off the head of a Elite. "Everyone push towards the Civilians!" I yelled as I took out my Assault Rifle as I vaulted over a desk and shot a grunt in the head. I made it to the barricade the humans set up with all the ODST rookies left. I saw the Commander talking to a lady in teal armor. I walked over and he congratulated me on getting the Rookies here. "Thank you, Sir." I replied standing at attention.

"Sir, there was a banshee that took out some of the guys." I said sadly.

"Damn," He said slamming his hand onto the table, "Alright, Carolina this is our Corporal." he said gesturing towards me with a smile. I stood at attention as I looked at the woman. She looked battle-hardened and weary as she gaved a small and well-rehearsed smile.

"I have heard a lot about you, except for your name." She said.

"I prefer to keep it that way." I say with humor in my voice.

"Well then let us continue, I have all my freelancers on the main barricade and your troops are moving all 500 civilians onto different pelicans. Except for the lady over there." she said gesturing towards a lady sitting in the corner with a laptop typing away.

"Corporal would you mind talking to her?" the commander asked. I saluted him and casually walked over to the woman.

"Hello," I said trying to be nice,"We are currently trying to get you guys into the pelicans so that we can you know get you guys out of here." The girl looked up from her laptop and I stopped as I looked into her deep blue eyes, I saw that she was beautiful.

"I know and I dont plan on leaving until all of the civilians are loaded in and gone." she said with a calm expression.

"Fine." I said as I sat next to her and set an alarm for 5 minutes from now. I looked at her and she closed her laptop and leaned on my shoulder and closed her eyes. I looked at her for a few seconds and closed my eyes.


	4. Chapter 4

I realized I hate mornings when I woke up to screaming and my arm being pulled. I saw the girl from earlier yelling at me and pulling on my arm. I sat up and looked at her and then around and I saw that all the civilians were loaded up and leaving, I looked for any pelican that was still around and I saw that there was one. It was going out of the window and down the building that was tilted dangerously on the building. I thought of my possible options and decided on the least likely one to happen. I grabbed the girl by the wrist and ran towards where the pelican was dropping off the side of the building. It's back looked like it was closing so I ran as fast as I possibly could and at the last moment I turned towards the girl and grabbed her other wrist and threw her into the back of the pelican. I watched as she went to the front of the pelican, while I was falling off the side of the building and onto the tilted building.

I was about to impact as I tried to aim for a piece of concrete instead of a glass pane. I slammed hard into a concrete pillar between two glass panes, It didn't break my fall but it did make the building that much more dangerous as it creaked and started to fall to the street below. _I just fucked up didn't I_ I thought to myself as I kept sliding down the building. I looked around and saw the pelican that took I threw the lady into speed up and wait at the bottom of the building and the back opened up. _Fuck yeah_ I thought as I aimed for the pelican when I realized that it wasn't waited for me but was picking up some people in armor similar to that of spartans. I tried to speed myself up as the last person got on and I was at the last floor that I could slide on I steadied myself and jumped to the pelican as the back was closing.

I barely made it into the pelican as my momentum carried me forward and I slammed onto the floor of the pelican and slid to the front of it. I heard the cocking of a rifle as I stood up and turned around and saw the spartans with weird colors aim their guns at me. "Uh, hi." I said weakly as I put my hands up. I was glad I did as a figure slammed into me and hugged me I used my hands to steady myself so that I don't fall over. I looked down and saw the lady from earlier. The spartans put their weapons down and watched this happen. I turned to a teal colored spartan and recognised her. "Carolina?" I asked.

"Corporal." She said as I decided to sit down while the lady was still holding me.

"Permission to sleep?" I asked zoning in and out.

"Granted." She said with a smile. Five seconds later I shut my eyes for some seriously needed shut-eye.

I was asleep for only half an hour before we made it back to the _Soul's of the Damned_, upon return the commander hammered me with questions about where I was and what I was thinking when he heard about the story of me sliding down the building. I tiredly was put onto Civilian duty which was fine with me because It put me with the lady from earlier. "Hey," I said as I walked into the civilian area where she sat in the corner,"never did catch your name."

"It's Katherine," She said,"and yours is?"

"Classified," said Carolina as she walked in with her crew of Spartans,"That is if he wishes to join us in our Project?" she asked looking at me. I couldn't believe she put me on the spot with the question. I looked at the Spartans and they stared back I looked at Katherine and she was looking back at me. "I have a few conditions," I said,"One I want to keep this armor but you are more than welcome to upgrade it in anyways you guys can."

"And your other condition?" the one in Tan armor asked.

"Find a job on your ship for her." I said seriously, motioning to Katherine who was shocked. I looked back at them and they all looked at Carolina expectantly. Eventually she nodded her approval. I grinned underneath my Helmet, _This is gonna be good_ I thought.


End file.
